What would you do with your guns/ammo if you had to temporarily evacuate?

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DMK

DMK

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Say you had to temporarily evacuate your house due to some kind of potential for disaster (flood, fire, chem, bio, whatever). Assume you have some warning so it's not mayhem, but you won't be back for perhaps a week or two. What do you do with your guns and ammo?

My biggest concern would be looters. I'd hate to arm a bunch of losers that would hang around and scavenge what's left behind.
 
We had to evacuate last summer due to fires. There's no way I could fight brush fires with my well Although I keep a 100 foot clearance the winds can really move the flames..

We keep everything important in firelined safes and that includes guns. If we had to leave RIGHT NOW, I would hope the safes are as good as they say. However, if they don't HAVE to burn, I'd rather take them. We have two dodge Rams so we can take darn near everything dear to us.

After the dog, cats, horses were loaded out we went back for the pictures and the safes.

The 3 document safes can be unbolted from the floor and in the truck in 15 min's.

It took another 15 minutes to unload the gun safe, use the fridge dolly to get it outside, 4 of us to slide it into the back of the Ram and toss the guns/ammo in the back seat.

A lot of work but worth it if you have the time IMO.
 
I've only got a few guns:

Handguns would go with. If I have time, I'll grab my shotgun, .22, and some ammo for both.
That reminds me, I need to rotate my emergency water this month.
 
I'd pick up a 1911 and the wife would pick up a 9mm. We'd leave the rest in the vault.
 
ATC: What schedule do you rotate??

"That reminds me, I need to rotate my emergency water this month"

I did the 2-55 gallon drums of water routine last year finally - what is the recommended refresh timing?? (fileed w/ regular tap water)
 
I did the 2-55 gallon drums of water routine last year finally - what is the recommended refresh timing?? (fileed w/ regular tap water)
Click to expand...

I change my stash quarterly; I could probably let it go longer, but it's just easy to remember that way.

When earnings reports for publicly-traded companies start coming out...I change my water.

Makes sense to me...:D

HTH,

Sawdust
 
We had to evacuate because of the fires last year too. I brought them with me. It's easier to do that than replace them here in Kali.

Scott
 
Water

ATC: What schedule do you rotate??
Click to expand...
I buy water bottles (2.5 gallon, and 1-2 cases of 16oz bottles) with an expiration date and rotate it out when its expired. I usually only keep about 10-15 gallons, plus the smaller bottles. Just enough to get me through 72 hours. If I need more, I've got 10 propane canisters and a stove to boil water.
 
I grab the Glock 17 and the AR-15, two magazines for each, and leave the rest in the safe. My safe is rated for 1200 degrees for 90 minutes.

I throw the ammo, powder and primers in the camper-trailer, hitch up and take off. (No point in leaving flammable material behind.)
 
Take them with - as we just did this week already.

Don't have a fire safe, but don't have that many guns either.

I don't worry too much about the ammo, except to take some of everything with us so we won't have guns with no ammo. If the fire takes the structures, then by that time the ammo left behind isn't going to make anything that much worse - total destruction is total destruction any way you look at it. And the typical FD structure protection strategy is to foam the house and get out while the fire burns over, then go back in and cool things back down. A lot of houses survive the burn over only to succumb to hot embers in the wrong places.

And we (the wife and kids, actually - I will already be paged out by then) try to take the camper trailer that already has some food and extra clothing in it. We don't leave the guns in the camper though, because it is more likely to burn up than the house if it gets left behind.
 
I suppose it would depend upon how much warning I had. If given an hour I could take just about everything I own apart from the furniture, which wouldn't matter anyway because it's all insured. On the other hand, if I had say ten minutes or less I'd keep it simple; firearms, ammunition, B.O.B., and a few personal effects. As shooten said it's eaiser than replacing them, and in some cases I wouldn't be able to.


I would have included family photos, but I learned a lesson from watching coverage of the wildfires in California years back. These days almost all of the photographs on display in my house are copies, with the originals safely stored in a safe deposit box at the bank along with my birth certificate, personal Bible, my Great-Uncle's letter (handwritten in the trenches of WW1), and some other important documents. Call me cautious, but I even have a copy of them on CD as an extra precaution.
 
Simple. Take what you can and disable the rest. Remove the firing pins / bolts / trigger groups from those you leave behind, whether they are in a safe or not.
 
I don't have much... the .22 pistol, .22 rifle, and the .40 H&K... so I'd just bag up all the guns and ammo and take it all.

Makes me wish the rifle case I ordered from Uncle Mike's wasn't backordered!:cuss:
 
Take my shotgun, .22, and AK with. The Winchester is left behind with a box of cheap 12ga... hopefully a looter or two will kill themselves trying to figure it out. :rolleyes: :D
 
Just this past Monday I was caught totally unprepared for a mandatory evacauation.

Apparently some CalTrans workers hit a 12" natural gas main whilst demolishing a freeway overpass. Concerned about a possiblity of explosion, they, along with the local PD and fire department evacuated a whole 2 mile radius. Even a mile away I could hear and smell the high pressure gas spewing out (sounded like a jet plane). :eek:

I was about to take a nap at about 6PM when a firefighter banged on my door and told us to get the heck out. I complied, bringing only my wallet, keys, cellphone, and surprisingly, digital camera. I was thinking we'd only be out a couple minutes or an hour at most. I was also dressed in only a tanktop and shorts.

Boy was I wrong! We weren't let back into the neighborhood until 8 hours later! I didn't get back until 2:30AM! In retrospect, I should probably have had an emergency bag ready along with a pistol and ammo. I don't have a safe, and I can't carry three longarms with me.

Thankfully, there were police and firemen posted right outside my door, so I wasn't really concerned about looters.

I'm in the process of making up a BOB now!
 
I have planned for years for just this. Living in Miami, I know its just a matter of time before Andrew's big brother comes calling.
I will seperate the guns, leaving none of them functional. A key part here, a vital sub assembly there................
 
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